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What Was Worth A Damn About Summer Game Fest 2026?

Yeah, it’s Keighley o’clock again. I won’t do the whole spiel about Geoff Keighley or the games presentations associated with him - they’re vapid, bloated productions run by gaming PR’s favourite host, but you know that already (OR you know that now). Other folks have better, more entertaining material poking fun at the whole farce of the thing, whereas my aim is simply to find the potential gems amid the middling fare. This year’s Summer Game Fest was definitely among the more underwhelming and anemic in my experience, but I still managed to find some noteworthy titles, my reactions to which I have presented below. Have a look and see if anything strikes your fancy. Star Wars: Zero Company Developed by Bit Company and Respawn Entertainment Published by Electronic Arts Releasing August 27, 2026 for Windows PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The initial reveal for this game gave a strong impression that the central idea for this game was “What if XCOM, but with Star Wars stuff?” What they sh...
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REVIEW: Beetle Shock

Developer: Afil Games Publisher: Afil Games Release Date: January 13, 2026 Available for: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Switch (version reviewed) Beetle Shock could be described in a sentence written in crayon on a napkin, and you’d lose nothing in terms of detail or value prospect. That’s not entirely a criticism, either – it is exactly what it looks like on the tin, short and slight yet adequate enough as a game to make the question of whether it’s worth your time more subjective an inquiry than normal. What we have here is a mascot platformer that owes part of its design to A Boy and His Blob , minus the jellybean-infused powers of a shapeshifting companion. Like the Boy of that game, Beetle Shock’s titular protagonist is limited in their mobility options; they can only run forward and back, jump, and perform a mid-air ground pound that smashes through breakable bricks and increases the height of jumps when hopping on mushrooms (this game's version of bounce pads).  The Beetle...
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Review: HEIR TO THE QUEEN

Even without knowing the term "isekai", you have probably at some point encountered a story or piece of media that follows its basic framework. A Japanese term meaning "another world", isekai stories deal with the notion of being adrift in a setting quite unlike one's own; they follow protagonists who are ripped away from a world much like ours and dropped into an unfamiliar place or time. Be it Edgar Rice Burroughs's depiction of Mars as a futuristic kingdom in the Barsoom books   or the fantastical realm of Oz, the specifics matter less than the intent - to challenge the protagonist's preconceived notions and lead them to personal growth in the face of unexpected conflict.  I lay all of this out for you because I think the intent with Heir to the Queen, a small-scale adventure game, was to hit the basic points of the isekai journey under the constraints of a threadbare budget and no larger media presence. That's speculation on my part, though, sinc...
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Review: GORDY

Sometimes, in the business of critiquing games, there comes a moment where you have to ask yourself if your expectations of the creators behind projects are too high. Are you holding people, and their work, to too great a standard? Would you be strong enough, focused enough, bold enough to make the choices that lead to this game existing in the first place? Can you really say that, in their position, you’d do better than they ever could? I think about all of that, and then games like GORDY fall into my lap to remind me that having standards is important too. Sometimes, games are hollow, ambling, and slapdash in their construction - being able to acknowledge those failings and examine them in detail helps us understand and celebrate how other games prevail where this particular experience fell short. And if there’s one thing to be said in GORDY ’s favour, it’s that it isn't lacking for teachable moments, however much I may wish it did. Developed and published by MyGrandfather Games...
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Contradiction: A Review

Once, in a bygone era called the 1990s, full-motion video was the latest fad sweeping the games industry. Wing Commander, Night Trap, Command & Conquer, The 7th Guest – many a studio saw potential in recordings of live actors performing scenes as a foundation for their games. Alas, between the relentless advance of technology and the inherent cost in building a game around FMV sequences, the practice would fall out of favour by decade's end.  Still, from time to time, games emerge that tap into that peculiar moment of history to interesting effect. So it is that we have Contradiction: Spot the Liar! , a crowdfunded murder mystery game wrapped in the FMV aesthetic. Though peculiar in some of its creative choices, the passion for the craft and the novelty of its main conceit do manage to shine through. Developed & Published by: Baggy Cat Ltd. Released for PC Set in a village in the UK, Contradiction follows the efforts of one Detective Jenks as he attempts to uncover the cir...
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Time Loader Review - Can You Go Home Again?

Time Loader builds itself upon a premise that's hard not to empathize with, utilizing the concept of time travel and environmental puzzles as both narrative hurdle and thematic weight. Everything about its construction rings with a certain profound sadness, a longing rarely put to words yet always there, like background radiation.  It is a game about being tied to the past and being unable to escape on every level. That inherent quality, though, begs the question: is Time Loader rooted so deeply to formula and familiar trappings that it cannot also be compelling or profound on its own merits? Do its preoccupations and occasional flaws stop it from going as far with its premise as it intends to? Title: Time Loader   Developer: Flazm Publisher: META Publishing Version Played: Xbox One   Release Date: March 10th, 2022 Note: Review code provided by HomeRun PR, on behalf of publisher When weighing the worth of this game, one needs to take into account that much to its cred...
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From the Archives: Call of Duty Review

I'm still cooking up the next new piece, so this week I thought I'd dig through some of my past work and find something that still actually holds up well. The following is a retro review of 2003's Call of Duty , originally written for and published on a previous blog that I created and ran for a number of years. While there may be individual points and observations with which I now disagree or regard in different terms, and while certain details about the wider franchise may have changed in the time since publication, I feel that this is a solid piece from the end of that blog's run and that there's much to be learned from revisiting one's earlier productions.  So, for your reading pleasure (I hope), here goes... When I think about how the first-person shooter has evolved, my first instinct is to turn to Call of Duty . The little-remembered 2003 war epic turned a niche genre – the military shooter – into a full-blown phenomenon, earning millions for publishe...
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PSYCHONAUTS 2 Review

"I am the crushed one. It crushes my heart to see you not doing your best." Release Date: August 25, 2021 Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X Note: writer contributed to 2015/2016 Fig campaign funding the game's development  In an age where sequels and reboots are in abundance, particularly where video games are concerned, sixteen years is a hell of a gap. Yes, it can help cultivate a nostalgic longing for the return of something beloved from a bygone era... but it can't be helped that in that time, everything from the basics of design priorities through to the greater-scope concerns of the world around us has shifted more than once in inescapable, inevitable fashion. So it's an interesting position for Double Fine's latest work Psychonauts 2 to find itself. It needs to not only stand on its own merits but also ride the line between honoring its cult classic predecessor and growing beyond its roots, while also reckoning with the reality t...
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Critical Round-Up Volume I

I’ve sat on some opinions about a handful of games, most of which released in the hell year that was 2020, for a while now. This is owed largely to having being previously occupied by other concerns – professional and personal – as well as not feeling inclined to dedicate whole articles to them (at the very least, not while the pay for such work is... limited, let’s say). However, that ends now. I’ve decided to compile these together as a kind of loose round-up of sorts, a highlight reel of the highs and lows of a year in gaming where so much went wrong... but sometimes a few things turned out alright.  Before we go any further: if you enjoy this piece and want to support the creation of more work like it, please consider checking out (and potentially signal-boosting) the Kurt of Cambridge Ko-Fi and Paypal pages. With that out of the way, LET'S BEGIN. Carrion So this is easily the best thing Devolver Digital has published since Hotline Miami . The remarkable simplicity of the gam...
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MojoPlays Review - Crackdown 3 (link attached)

Yep, 'tis another work of mine - a video review of Crackdown 3 scripted and with captured footage by yours truly.
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Wee Bit of a Content Round-up (links in post)

So! I've been a busy fellow, it seems. Yes, in addition to continuing to work on QueueTimes pieces behind the scenes (one's coming up soon, keep your eyes open) I've also been asked to join the Review team for MojoPlays , an off-shoot of WatchMojo.com .  My first review , for the first episode of Telltale's The Walking Dead: The Final Season: And review number two , for the indie puzzle-platformer Planet Alpha:
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Review: SQUIDLIT (linked article)

Yes, I have indeed begun reviewing for QueueTimes.  First up: my take on the delightful retro platformer Squidlit.   Read on...
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Review: LATER ON

Developer/Publisher: Penumbra Games Release Date: January 26, 2018 Version Played: PC Copy purchased for review There’s a definite hole to be filled where once stood classics like Silent Hill, Siren and Alone in the Dark .  Those seminal works of the survival horror genre knew better than most how to toy with audience expectations, using a synthesis of cutting-edge audio-visual technology and compelling writing to scare the living crap out of you.  Everything from the underplayed cosmic horror of Lovecraft to the familiar yet grotesque extremes of Barker was drawn upon for inspiration, and it enriched rather than undermined these vital entries in the genre. Later On doesn’t quite hit that same level of quality or cultural relevance, not by a long shot.  It’s constrained very much by the tools and scope of its construction, and feels like it pulls punches or avoids essential detail where such elements would do the most good.  Yet there’s a hard-to-resist a...
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Review: ALMA

Developer: Turquesa Studios Publisher: Turquesa Studios Release Date: January 17, 2018 Version Played: PC Copy purchased for review Some games break my goddamn heart, that's for sure. I see their potential, I recognize full well that there's genuine effort and care being put into (some aspects of) the production, and I brace for the inevitable realization that this work in question just isn't very good. Alma has wound up being one such game. It drew me in initially with a compelling premise and visual style, before grinding me down to seething contempt with game mechanics as infuriating in practice as they are half-baked in conception. Every time it seemed like something might potentially work - rare as the prospect was - the game ended up pulling out the rug from underneath me. After the first few instances of this, it soon became clear nothing would redeem the failings of Alma . Not. One. Damn. Thing. The setup's not half bad, though. Our heroine of c...
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